Marked
by findingmymuse
Summary: She told herself that it didn't matter what was written behind her left ear in a calming sunset orange. Soulmates, boys, kisses, weren't anything but trouble...
1. Katniss

**Disclaimer: The idea of soulmarks comes to me from Fanfic Allergy, though I'm not sure where it originated. This is my version of it.**

Part One.

Katniss didn't believe in soulmarks. Didn't _want_ to believe in the ancient superstition where your soulmate's first words to you were written across your own flesh. It wasn't common anymore since the travel reatrictions in Panem were enforced, but legends told of a time before the Dark Days when every person had a soulmark. Still, everyone in the Seam wanted to believe in the random chance of fate and prayed for the marks to appear.

Except Katniss.

She had seen firsthand the trouble it had caused her parents. Her mother's words, "Oh! You startled me," were scribbled delicately on the underside of Henry's right foot in lavender scrawl. Her father's response, "Sorry, miss," in a pale blue across Lily's matching sole.

The two met for the first time the day of their final reaping. Lily Harper was hiding from her parents behind Harper's Apothecary when Henry Everdeen walked around the corner, cutting through the merchant quarters to get to the Reaping Square early. They wanted her to marry her semi-boyfriend Bannock Mellark, a sweet boy that she cared for but could never settle down with. Her soulmark proved that Bannock wasn't her soul mate. He was a blank, having no soulmate of his own, and was therefore tied down to no one. He fell for Lily hard and the two courted through school. Lily, however, wanted romance and magic, something only her soulmate could give her. Katniss' grandparents were furious at their stubborn daughter and even pressured the baker's son set to take over the family business to propose to Lily. She was hiding from him, too.

So, you can imagine the uproar when a coal miner said those magic words to their daughter that very morning.

Lily left her life of luxury as a merchant, her comfortable future as a baker's wife, and her parents' disapproval behind. Henry and Lily were inseperable after that, sneaking off to the slag heap any time they could. Lily's parents forbid them from marrying, but Katniss' mother didn't care. They had a toasting in secret and not soon after, learned of their pregnancy. If the soulmarks didn't already, Katniss' conception sealed their fate.

They were truly happy, though. And a few years later, Primrose was born and completed their happy little family. For twelve years, Lily Everdeen was glad for her soulmark, her soulmate, her daughters. That changed with the mining accident. The day they buried Henry, they might as well have buried Lily with him.

At age eleven, Katniss stopped believing in the miracle of a soulmark as she watched her mother shrink away, half of her soul ripped out. Katniss swore she would never become her mother.

Besides, she had a family to take care of without having to make one herself with some guy. There was no "happily every after" as the ancient stories went. She didn't need a man or children to make her happy. She had her little sister Prim and a hunting partner in Gale Hawthorne.

The first time she met Gale, she was terrified he was her soul mate. She didn't trust soulmarks to bring a happy ending anymore. On that fateful day, she had decided to take to the woods to try and hunt. Things were bleak without her father and with her mother physically there but useless to the Everdeen sisters.

The week before her first hunting trip, Katniss had been revitalized by, of all things, burnt bread and a dandelion. It was fate. So, naturally, she was wary of the older boy in the woods that nearly caught her in one of his traps. Fate had already intervened once.

She called out her name when the Seam boy stepped out from behind a tree, her hands up in defense, bow hidden behind her. She prayed he didn't have her name written behind his ear, in the spot mirrored her own soulmark. But, thankfully, Gale was not her soulmate. He responded with a confused, "Catnip?" Relief flooded her and his dark eyes sparkled mischeviously.

"You don't have a..." Katniss paused. Though her family knew about her soulmark, it wasn't public knowledge. Some girls in her class flaunted their marks, hoping to catch the attention of their future mates. Katniss didn't.

"Cat got your tongue, Catnip?"

"It's Katniss." She corrected, narrowing her eyes. "And it doesn't matter."

"What brings a scrawny kid like you out into these woods?" Gale pressed. "You can't be more than what, nine?"

"I'm _eleven_." Katniss didn't like this boy. Who did he think he was? He didn't own the woods. "And I came here to find something."

"Or _someone_?" Gale probed. "You out here lookin' for a soulmate?"

Katniss flushed with embarrassment and Gale grinned. "Ah. Sorry, I hate to break it to ya, but I ain't got one. So you'll just have to fall in love with me the old fashioned way...by proving your skills."

That made Katniss like him more. He was the kind of guy she could fall for, if she were being honest about it now. But she was only eleven then and didn't think of Gale as anything but an ally in surviving.

"As if!" Katniss couldn't help the smile on her face. "I don't want love. What I need, though, is food."

As the years went on, Gale became more than just a hunting partner. He was her best friend. Her _only_ friend, really. Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter, was friendly enough at lunch and Gale's little siblings were practically family to her and Prim, but the only one she could talk to was Gale.

It was the morning of the 74th Reaping. His last, her second to last, and Prim's first. Katniss was worried about her little sister, though she and Gale were the ones without odds in their favor with all the tesserae taken out to provide for their families over the years.

"We could do it, you know. Run away and live in the woods." Gale suggested, picking at the fresh bread she had traded a squirrel to the baker for this morning.

"Prim would never leave my mother." Katniss said, though she was tempted by the offer. She knew she and Gale could survive in the woods. They'd been hunting in them for years. But it wasn't _them_ she was worried about. "Besides, what about Posy and the boys? Or your mother? We can't just leave, Gale, and you know it."

"You're just worried about Mr. Soulmark." Gale gritted his teeth.

"What the hell has gotten into you, Gale?" Katniss asked, the tension thick in the air. "You know I don't care about that dumb thing."

"Just admit it, Katniss. You secretly _want_ to stick around and meet him." His food was forgotten, a rare occurrence.

"I want to stick around because I _have_ to." Katniss raised her voice. "Because unlike some people, I don't have the luxury to do whatever I want."

"And you think I do what I want?" He was a hot head, but even Katniss had never seen him this mad. "Aw hell, Katniss."

She didn't see it coming. Without warning, his lips were on hers. Gale was kissing her! She froze against him, her lips might as well have been marble. He pulled away a few seconds later.

"Wh-what was that?" Katniss didn't know what she was feeling. Gale was her _best_ _friend_.

"I was just doing what you told me to." Gale's anger was long gone, replaced with something weird Katniss couldn't describe.

"I didn't tell you to kiss me, you nut."

"No, but I just wanted to, for once in my life, do what I wanted to do."

"And why the hell would you want to kiss me?" Katniss could still feel the ghost of his wet lips on hers.

"Because I love you, Katniss."

"No, no, no, no, no." She got to her feet, abandoning their breakfast. She backtracked. "Why'd you have to go and say a stupid thing like that?"

"I'm sorry, Catnip!" Gale called after her.

Katniss felt a tear run down her cheek. She was so mad. Gale knew how she felt about love, _knew_ she didn't want what other girls did. He didn't have a soulmarks, so he could be with anyone. Why did he want _her_ when she so obviously didn't want anyone? They had always been on the same page about this, or so she thought.

Gale _loved_ her? Katniss felt nauseous. Because, she could imagine her life with him: a coal minerminer's wife like her mother, hunting on Sundays together like always, sharing secrets and stolen kisses, raising their siblings together until that wasn't enough for him, and then what? Kids of their own? No. She couldn't have children, not with him or anyone.

This didn't change anything. The Hunger Games still existed, her family was still barely making ends meet, her mother was barely functioning as an adult figure, and, despite herself, Katniss still had a soulmark.

She told herself that it didn't matter what was written behind her left ear in a calming sunset orange. Soulmates, boys, kisses, weren't anything but trouble.

After Gale's proclamation, Katniss had trouble concentrating on preparing for the Reaping. His kiss, though unprompted, wasn't unpleasant. Maybe she could learn to see him as more than a friend. Or, better yet, maybe that could be enough for him. If he was serious about loving her, maybe he'd understand that she could never love him back the same way. If he agreed to the no children thing, and _really_ agreed to it, she didn't see why they couldn't make it work. Most Seam marriages, the un-soulmarked ones anyways, turned into a mutual partnership once the initial lust of courting ran out.

Katniss never got a chance to ask Gale about it, though, because fate intervened once again. Primrose Everdeen, with one slip in the bowl, was reaped for the 74th Hunger Games.


	2. Peeta

Part Two.

Peeta didn't believe in soulmarks. Didn't _want_ to believe in the ancient superstition where your soulmate's first words to you were written across your own flesh.

He was five years old when he first realized the downside of having a pre-determined soulmate. It was his first day of school and his father had walked him from the Merchant Square to the elementary schoolhouse. His brothers had run ahead to meet up with their friends before the bell rang.

"Who's _that_?" Peeta asked, his eyes drawn instantly to the little girl in a plaid dress, her dark hair in two braids. He wasn't sure why. According to Rye and Graham, girls had cooties and didn't make great friends anyways. His brothers would know, they were six and nine, practically adults. They didn't need to be walked to school on _their_ first day of school.

"Ah," his father smiled kindly. "That is Katniss Everdeen."

Peeta's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"I almost married her mother Lily, once upon a time." His father replied. "But Katniss' father was her soulmate and you can't stand in the way of that, even if you wanted to."

"Are you and Momma soulmates?" Peeta was always the most curious of the Mellark boys. He wanted to know how something worked, but also _why_ it did. His parents' relationship never made sense to him. His father was kind and always smiling, while his mother was standoffish and cold.

"I don't have a soulmark, like you do." Bannock smiled, lightly tapping Peeta's left ear. It was after his first haircut as a baby that his parents realized his soulmark, hidden by his full head of hair. He kept his hair long now, because his mother told him he had to.

"What about Momma?" Peeta asked. Neither Rye nor Graham had a soulmark. His brothers teased him relentlessly about his mark, saying he was a "softie" and that only girls believed in love. They didn't dare pick on Peeta when their mother was in the room, though.

Bannock paused. "She does. But the boy died in the Games a year after they met."

"I hate the Games." Peeta said. And he meant it.

"If it weren't for the Games, your mother and I never would have toasted. And then where would you be?" His father teased. But it was hollow. Losing a soulmate was serious; even at five, Peeta understood that. It was probably why his mother was so mean all the time.

"Yeah," Peeta said, his eyes still on the girl, _Katniss_.

"Why don't you go talk to her?" Bannock mused, a teasing grin on his face.

But Peeta couldn't move. If she didn't say the right words, he'd be crushed. He didn't care about his soulmark, not _really_ , but he'd seen parents with visible ones and now knew his own didn't have them, and knew which couples seemed happier.

That afternoon, when she sang "The Valley Song" in music class, Peeta knew for sure that he wanted to marry Katniss Everdeen when they grew up.

Over the years, Peeta kept an eye out for Katniss. At about eight, he had the brilliant idea to have Rye trace the words onto a piece of paper for him. He wanted to compare her handwriting to the little scrawl behind his ear, written in a deep green. But their last names sat them at opposite sides of the room and the pencil sharpener was at the back of the classroom near him so he never had an easy excuse to wander near her desk.

When he became friends with Delly Cartwright in third grade (girls did _not_ have cooties, it turned out), he thought he would have an in. Girls were all friends with each other, that was the rules, or so Peeta thought. But Delly, sweet as she was, seemed to annoy Katniss. Everyone seemed to annoy Katniss. Except her little sister, Primrose, of course. Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter and Peeta's mild acquaintance, was the closest thing it seemed Katniss had to a friend. But Madge snapped at him when he asked if she could sneak him a piece of paper with Katniss' writing on it. Said it was "stalker behavior" and "why didn't he just talk to her like a normal person?" Peeta was mortified.

He tried to keep his distance even more after that. He never quite got over her, persay, but he was able to think about things other than _just_ her for a few years. It helped that he was mildly popular. He was a merchant, did well on team sports though he thrived on the wrestling team, and was nice to everyone. Being the youngest Mellark, the teachers all knew him before he stepped into their rooms and were surprised at how well-mannered he was in comparison to his two older brothers. "Must take after his Daddy," they'd say. It made Peeta blush, but he was proud to be like his father.

As he got older, he wondered why his father didn't have a soulmark. If anyone in District 12 deserved to be happy, it was Bannock Mellark, at least to Peeta. Not that having a soulmark had done Peeta much good. He was in love with a girl he could probably never have, doomed to marry another. Because there was no way his soulmate would be okay with him pining after Katniss. He would have to give her up, and he wasn't ready. So he tried not to talk to girls at all.

It wasn't that hard, though. Other than Delly, he didn't have any female friends. And he wasn't as attractive as Rye or as quick-witted as Graham. Though he loved the bakery, he wasn't set to inherit the family business either. Traditionally, it was the eldest son. Of course, Graham could reject his birthright, but it would pass next to Rye. The chances of _both_ his brothers giving up their rights to the family bakery were very slim. Thankfully, all the merchant girls knew it too.

When he was eleven, though, ignoring Katniss became impossible. Her father died in a mining accident on a Saturday in the late fall and Katniss and her sister didn't return to school for a week. Peeta wanted to say something to her, tell her he thought her dad was really nice and it was a shame he had died. But any time he got up the courage to say anything, the words would get caught in his throat and he'd chicken out.

Then there was the bread.

He had watched her wither away all winter, her clothes hanging off of her thin frame more and more each day. He wanted to share his lunch with her when he noticed she stopped bringing hers. But he knew Katniss enough by now to know she wouldn't accept a handout.

He finally got a chance to help her one night when he heard the pigs making a ruckus. Someone was out there. He peered through the window, ready to call for his brothers. Sometimes they had to run off drunk miners or Seams digging through their trash. Peeta didn't like to do the latter because while sometimes their family went to bed without supper, he knew people in the Seam had it much worse. His mother didn't approve of his kindness, saying he was weak.

When he saw it was Katniss hiding by a tree in the rain-no, _laying_ by a tree in the rain, clearly exhausted from the walk from the Seam in search of food-Peeta reacted on instinct. He grabbed the two extra day old loaves he had been preparing for his family's dinner and thrust them into the big stone oven. His mother would heat up leftover stew for the third night in a row in a few minutes so he had to be quick; the portions were hardly filling, but the day old bread usually helped cover the difference. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds to burn the edges. He didn't want it all burned for fear she wouldn't eat it.

"What the hell is that damned smell?" Graham came into the kitchen, sniffing the air. His language seemed to have taken a nosedive at fifteen.

"It burned." Peeta shrugged, holding up the clearly partially burned loaves. "I'm going to feed these to the pigs."

Graham narrowed his eyes and Peeta rubbed the back of his neck. "You never burn anything."

"It's for Katniss..." Peeta admitted. It had been hard to hide his crush on Katniss as the years went on. Especially from his nosy brothers.

"Ma is gonna kill you," Graham's eyes went wide.

Peeta was out the back door before his brother had a chance to talk him out of it. He threw the bread past the pigs and as close to Katniss as he could. He tried to make eye contact with her, so she would finally _see_ him. But her eyes flew to the bread and she hurried off.

By the time he's inside again, Katniss is long gone and his whole family is in the kitchen. Graham didn't need to tell them what happened.

"I've raised an idiot!" His mother yells, raising her hands in the air.

"That's hardly fair-" Bannock started, but was cut off.

"What would you call a son who doesn't understand the value of hard work?" She turned to Peeta. "That was our dinner, you lazy boy."

He wasn't sure why he was being called lazy, but he didn't dare correct her. "I saw someone out there who needed it more than we did."

"We take care of our own." It was an accusation. "Or are you too good for your family?"

"That's not it, Ma."

"Good thing for that soulmark or no respectable merchant would ever love you." Greta Mellark spat, though she didn't sound relieved for Peeta's future.

His mother didn't talked about his soulmark, perhaps because it reminded her of her own. The boys had never seen it, Peeta wasn't even sure if his brothets knew she had one, but from the way she never took her socks off, he had to assume it was on one of her feet.

"The nerve of you, boy. Wasting good food on that trash."

"Katniss isn't trash!" Peeta blurted out, unable to stop himself from defending her.

 _Whack_. Peeta didn't see the pinroller coming. He had been hit by his mother before but this was different. She had a nasty temper and the boys didn't dare raise their hand back to her for fear of the next blow.

He must have blacked out. When he came to, he was in the room he and his brothers all shared though they were nowhere to be seen. Instead, his father sat at the end of his bed, head in his hands.

"Pa?" Peeta called out, his throat dry. His head was throbbing and he reached up to touch his forehead before his good sense stopped him. He let out an embarrassing cry, glad Rye and Graham weren't there to tease him.

"Shh, don't move." Bannock gently placed a wet wash cloth over Peeta's right eye.

They sat in silence for awhile. Finally, Bannock spoke again. "You need to quit this thing with Katniss."

It was definitely not what Peeta expected his father to say. "I won't burn anything else."

"It's not just the food, Peet." His father looked resigned. "You've always been so kind and I'm sure Katniss is a nice girl, her mother certainly was back in the day. But I don't want that kind of life for my sons."

"A life in the Seam, you mean." Peeta furrowed his brow, but winced and tried hard to relax his face. That welt was going to leave a bruise for sure.

"A life at odds with your mother." Bannock corrected. "Please, Peeta. For all of our sakes, but yours especially, give up your crush."

"It's not a crush." Peeta said, angry at his father for probably the first time in his life. "I love Katniss."

"You're only eleven." Bannock said slowly, sensing his son's mood. "And, you hardly know her."

"I know her."

"Have you even spoken to Katniss before?" His tone was kind, but Peeta was still mad. He didn't respond and Bannock took that as a no. "Look, son. I think the sooner you speak with her, the sooner you can get over her. You have a soulmate out there waiting for you. Don't worry about Katniss Everdeen."

"Okay, Pa." Peeta lied. "I'll talk to her tomorrow."

But, of course, he didn't. He ran into her on the sidewalk outside of school the next day, and she nearly said something to him, but instead she stared at the welt across his face with an odd look on her face. It wasn't pity exactly, but maybe guilt? He turned away in embarrassment and she dropped her gaze to the ground.

Not long after that, Katniss showed up at the back door of the bakery with squirrels in tow, shot right through the eye, and Peeta worried less about her thin frame. She never quite reached Delly or Madge's sizes, but she no longer looked like the wind would blow her over.

It was harder to keep away from her the older he got, though. He couldn't say anything to her, sure she didn't know his words, but he listened to her voice when she traded her kills with bread from his father. Maybe Madge was right, maybe he was a stalker. But he didn't care. Loving Katniss was all he knew. He resented his soulmark and whatever soulmate was attached to it.

By the time he was ready to say "screw it" and ask her out, she had started seeing Gale Hawthorne when Peeta turned sixteen. One day in the locker rooms after gym, he overheard Gale talking about how kind Katniss was and how she was the prettiest girl in the Seam, earning responses from his friends that their girl was the prettiest. It confirmed his suspicion that he had waited too long and the girl he loved had found another. The two had always been sneaking off into the woods together to hunt, but Peeta had hoped.

It was a long year after that. Fate, it seemed, was not on his side.

He thought things couldn't get worse until the morning of his second to last Reaping. Sweet, innocent Primrose Everdeen was called and Peeta's heart sunk. Because he knew Katniss. And, like he knew she would, she volunteered as tribute for her sister.

Fate must have been either really cruel or really kind. Because Peeta's name was drawn from the lot, the first merchant in nearly ten years.

On the one hand, Peeta had no reason not to talk to Katniss now. The Games were a death sentence, everyone knew it, especially from a District as poor as Twelve. He could confess his feelings and maybe have a few good weeks with her learning to care for him back. Or, she could say his words to him, be his soulmate, and he'd die protecting her. Or, worse, she wouldn't say his words, he'd try to protect her but she'd die anyways, and he would win the Games and go home to meet his soulmate. No matter how he played it out in his head, it was never the happily ever after he had always imagined with Katniss, soulmate or not.


	3. Katniss & Peeta

Part Three.

Katniss couldn't breathe. She was going into the Hunger Games, likely to die. But she kept her composure for the cameras. She would die if Prim had been the one to go in, so it was instinct to volunteer and take her sister's place at the Reaping. After years of taking care of her family, trying to keep them alive, it was the only thing she knew how to do.

It wasn't until she was saying her goodbyes to Prim that she finally broke down.

"You shouldn't have done that," Primrose choked out through tears.

"I love you, Little Duck." Katniss replied, shaking her head. "And I stand a better chance than you would have."

They both knew it was true. Though she was thin and would definitely lose in a hand-to-hand combat situation, she was good with a bow and decent with a blade. As long as she could get her hands on a weapon, she had hope. She didn't want to kill anyone. But people weren't that much different than animals, or at least that's what she would have to convince herself of in order to get through this.

Primrose on the other hand, took in stray, wounded animals and insisted Katniss spare the lives of spiders that had snuck into their house. She was a mere child, still full of wonder for the world, not yet hardened by the harsh reality of life.

Innocent children from the outlining districts never won.

"You have to win, Katniss." Prim was beside herself. Their mother sat on the other side of the tribute, resigned at her daughter's fate.

"I'll try." Katniss didn't want to cry in front of Prim, but it was hard to hold back.

"No," Prim said sternly. "You have to come back."

Katniss nodded, but didn't believe she would ever see her sister again. She hugged Prim close to her and breathed in the sweet scent of lavender.

Prim pulled back suddenly. "You're coming back!" She said excitedly, pulling on Katniss' neatly done-up braid. "Your soulmark! You haven't met him yet. So you must make it out."

Katniss frowned. She hadn't thought about that. Not everyone was born with a soulmark, but it was understood that if you were, you were guaranteed to at least meet your soulmate. It didn't mean they would necessarily get together romantically and live forever in happiness. But, still, it was hope for a moment.

Or her soulmate could be the guard outside her door or another tribute or Ceasar Flickerman for all Katniss knew. She didn't mention this to Primrose, though.

Her goodbyes with her family were too short. But Katniss knew she couldn't keep herself composed for the cameras later if Primrose stayed any longer. Weak tributes never faired well.

Then the Hawthorne bunch came in to say their farewells. It was hard to look Gale in the eye. Only this morning, he was confessing his love for her and trying to get her to run away with him. She almost wished she had. But, that didn't matter anymore. She was a tribute in the Games now, that's all. She couldn't think about her best friend's feelings.

Madge Undersee popped in for a minute, giving Katniss a beautiful gold trinket. It was probably the first time she had ever held something so precious in her hands and tried to refuse it.

"Please, Katniss." Madge begged. "I want you to have it. I should have given it to you years ago. You're my friend."

A lump lodged itself in her throat. "Okay, Madge. You're, uh, my friend too." She added quickly, as Madge pinned the little Mockingjay on her pale blue dress that used to be her mother's. She wondered absently if her mother would ever get the dress back.

Surprisingly, the baker came to see her, too. He must have stepped out of Peeta's room across the hall. Though she traded with him throughout the week, they weren't friends. She wasn't even friends with Peeta or Rye.

Still, Mr. Mellark gave her a bag of cookies and wished her luck. His blue eyes pooled with tears, but she was glad he didn't actually cry over her. He had his own family to take care of and should be worried about Peeta. Or maybe he was. She felt guilty for thinking it, but maybe Mr. Mellark was here to make Peeta seem sympathetic so she'd ally with him.

Not that she wasn't already planning on watching out for Peeta as long as it was convenient. She owed him for the bread still. It wasn't like she hadn't tried to thank Peeta-she hated owing people anything-but the next day the gravity of his gesture was evident by the welt across his face. The price of his bread was even more than she thought.

How could she repay his undeserved sacrifice with simple words? She had looked down at her feet in shame.

That was when she saw the dandelion and remembered her father's advice about edible plants. Though she hadn't hunted much with him behind the fence before his death, she knew he had a bow and a few arrows hidden somewhere in the woods. Father had called her a natural with the bow. With a little practice, she could bring home meat, _real meat,_ to her withering little sister and still unresponsive mother. At the very least, she knew she could provide for her family with edible weeds and berries.

Katniss owed Peeta for her life, and her mother and Prim's. She had promised to return home to her little sister, so she couldn't get too attached to Peeta as an ally. But as long as she could help it, she would protect the boy with the bread.

Much too soon, she was shuffled towards the train meant to take her to the Capitol. It was almost laughable how luxurious the train itself was. Soft beige carpet that she wanted to sink her toes into (she had never even seen carpet before, wondering if it would feel like grass beneath her feet), artwork lined the walls of even the hallways (real paintings, not the half scrawled pencil drawings Prim had done back in first school that still litered their bedroom), and from what she could see, the lights were electric and would probably stay on long into the night (unlike electric in the Seam that automatically shut off at curfew). Even her room, a private car meant only for her, had it's own bathroom (shower included!) and a bed twice the size of the one she shared with Prim. For the first time in her life, Katniss was spoiled with frivelous things. And it was all in vain, for she was sure to die in the Arena and never get a chance to describe it all to her little sister.

Katniss barely looked at Peeta as they boarded, too engrossed in her surroundings and trying to tune out their district chaperone, Effie Trinket, who was giving them a tour of the train. During dinner, she focused on the food in front of her, again ignoring the boy with the bread.

Their mentor was drunk at the end of the table and that, too, Katniss tried to ignore. Haymitch was harder to ignore, though. Somehow, Katniss ended up alone in a bedroom with Peeta, having dragged Haymitch into his bathroom for a hose-down when he promptly threw up the yellow squash soup all over the table.

"I can take care of him, if you want." Peeta offered, his eyes on the bathroom door, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment for either having to deal with getting their drunken mentor into clean clothes, or embarrassment at the prostpect of Katniss doing it herself.

So he didn't see the shock on her face as the weight of his words sunk deep into Katniss' bones.

Her soulmark words. So innocent, and could have been said any number of time over the years, but no. Of course they belonged to Peeta Mellark. He was the one boy she owed anything to and therefore took up more than his fair share of her thoughts; the one boy she was determined to run away from for that very reason; the one boy she could never be with because of their Tribute status.

Hesitantly, because she wasn't sure her words would be his, as well, she replied. "You've already done too much."

There was no doubt in her mind when his eyes snapped up to meet hers, the color draining from his face. "What did you say?"

"For the bread, I mean." Katniss' cheeks were flushed as she stumbled on. "You've already done too much. Let me do this."

"It's _you_." Peeta breathed quietly, somehow he had gotten within _breathing_ distance of Katniss. The huntress had been caught.


End file.
